Jennifer Roback Morse at Christian Post: The blogosphere has been all abuzz with reactions to Catholic intellectual Joseph Bottum’s recent meandering piece on same sex marriage. The Sexual Revolutionaries consider Bottum’s support of redefining marriage a coup, while supporters of natural marriage are naturally disappointed. But I think this article provides important clues to the way the Sexual Revolution has proceeded and succeeded.

MPR: Roback Morse founded the California-based Ruth Institute, which promotes marriage to college students. Many Minnesotans voted against amending the Constitution in November, Roback Morse said, because they thought there was no threat to traditional marriage. She believes those voters were surprised to have state legislators propose same-sex marriage legislation so soon.

American Independent via Huffington Post: In addition to NOM, the brochure’s listed sponsors included the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, and the Heritage Foundation, all social conservative groups based in Washington, D.C. The first “consequence[] of redefining marriage” listed in the brochure is that, “Redefining marriage would hurt children. Decades of social science – including very recent and robust studies – show that children do better when raised by a married mom and dad.” The endnotes cited Regnerus’ New Family Structures Study findings to support this claim.

Ryan Anderson at Double Think: Is there really “something highly contradictory,” as Kathryn Shelton argued here on Doublethink, about a position that “advocates the regulation of marriage, but rallies behind a platform for smaller government”? Or, on the contrary, is the promotion of marriage critical to limited government, as traditionalist conservatives—among others—regularly contend?

Jennifer Roback Morse at the Ruth Institute: Libertarians are being taken in by rhetoric that sounds libertarian but, in fact, will lead to a dramatic shift in the balance of power between the state and civil society, indeed between the state and the natural order itself.

The Rutherford Institute: Congress has just passed a bill, the FAA Reauthorization Act, mandating that the Federal Aviation Administration create a comprehensive program for the integration of drone technology into the national air space by 2015. The FAA predicts that there will be 30,000 drones crisscrossing the skies of America by 2020, all part of an industry that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

Austin R. Nimocks of the Alliance Defense Fund, Christopher Plante of the National Organization for Marriage, and Jennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute testify before a Washington State Senate Panel on the purpose of marriage. (January 23, 2012)

Ruth Institute Blog: Open marriage is also likely to be a terrible idea for children. A growing body of research suggests that children are harmed when they are exposed to a revolving cast of caregivers and partners. For example, a recent federal report found that children living with one parent and an unrelated romantic partner were about 10 times as likely to be sexually, physically or emotionally abused, compared with children living with their own married, biological parents.

Austin R. Nimocks of the Alliance Defense Fund, Christopher Plante of the National Organization for Marriage, and Jennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute testify before the Washington House Judiciary on the purpose of marriage. (January 23, 2012)

Reuters: Virginia groups opposed to discriminating against would-be adoptive and foster parents based on factors including sexuality and religion said on Thursday they may sue after a state board’s decision.

Education Week: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear appeals concerning mandated vaccines in public schools and a school district’s refusal to allow a religious group’s fliers to be sent home with students.

Ruth Institute: “The Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage Education Fund, announces its first annual Reel Love Challenge, a video contest for young adults, aged 18-30. The contest is open to all young adults, married or single, male or female, in college, out of college, or never been anywhere near a college. This contest is for everyone in the next generation to give their ideas about what sustains love over the course of a lifetime.”

Ruth Institute Blog: “Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse of the San Diego-based Ruth Institute rightly argues that the rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant with man, and she says proponents of Proposition 8 – California’s measure that passed in 2008 to define marriage as between a man and a woman — are the original ‘rainbow coalition.’”

William C. Duncan, director of the Marriage Law Foundation and Ruth Institute Board Member, reviews “When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage” by M. V. Lee Badgett: “The economist seems to think that personal interviews with thirty-four homosexuals, representing nineteen couples, can provide a quantitative understanding of the social consequences of Netherlands’ experiment with same-sex marriage . . . Consequently, the book offers little generalizable information and no conclusions verified by data about the effects of same-sex marriage on matrimony and society in Holland.”

U. of Dallas News: “In [Jennifer Roeback] Morse’s opinion, the legalization of no-fault divorce is the most destructive redefinition of marriage. ‘No-fault divorce takes away the permanence feature of marriage,’ Morse said. ‘Legally speaking, you do not have a binding contract.’ People now approach marriage with a different mentality, knowing that it is not necessarily permanent. Through the spread of contraceptive technology, marriage has been redefined in a second way. ‘We have removed the idea of childbearing being central to marriage,’ said Morse. ‘It has turned sexual activity into a sterile recreational activity.’”

William C. Duncan writes at the Ruth Institute Blog: “A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently issued an opinion ordering the State of Louisiana to issue an amended birth certificate for a child born in Louisiana but listing as the child’s parents two men . . . The implications of these errors are significant. The decision clearly dilutes the crucial constitutional concept of ‘interstate pluralism, in Professor Jeffrey Rensberger’s phrase. It allows judges to substitute their judgments of law for the valid actions of legislators and administrative officials charged with making and enforcing a State’s law. It threatens to create a new national standard of parenting whereby a couple can force an unwilling State to participate in their project of acquiring a legally motherless or fatherless child.”

Jennifer Roback Morse writing at the Ruth Institute Blog: “[T]he original (and real) Civil Rights movement succeeded because people were really persuaded that race is an irrelevant characteristic for full participation in the political, economic and civic life of the nation. By contrast, no one can seriously maintain that marriage is a necessary condition for participation in civic life, or that an unmarried person is a second class citizen in any meaningful sense. No one can believe that individuals with same sex attraction are unable to participate in the economic, political and civic life of this country, with or without the redefinition of marriage. The vast majority of Americans are persuaded that sex is in fact relevant to marriage and its purposes. They believe that marriage without gender or sex is an institution without purpose or meaning. This is why so many people are reluctant to strip sexual differentiation from the legal institution of marriage. The American public is persuaded that the demands of fairness and decency are satisfied by legal provisions that solve the practical problems same sex couple may face.”

Latest Posts

ADF Media: Alliance Defending Freedom asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit Monday to hear the case of Pennsylvania’s Geneva College, which is challenging a three-judge panel’s ruling that would force the Christian school to provide access to abortion pills as required by an Obama administration mandate.

Christian Examiner: Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Kristen Waggoner, who represented Stutzman, said the judgment is just the “first punch,” financially. She expressed concerns that the ACLU, which is representing Ingersoll and Freed, will attempt to “financially devastate” Stutzman’s business and personal assets — including her retirement and personal savings.

PJ Media: Lawyers for the Alliance Defending Freedom argued that excluding worship services from “a broadly available public forum” discriminates against religion. The church, which has outgrown its own building, needs more space for special occasions and the nearby public school is the only place large enough that they can afford.